The Chat
The Chat
#31 Summer Adventures, Hollywood Trends, Economic Insights, and Food Debates
Robert & Carlos chat: We take you from Orlando, to the green of Alaska, and through riveting tales of family reunions in Michigan and food in Chattanooga. Scenic hikes and gaming events.
Avid film buffs, we don't just stop at travel tales. We venture into Hollywood, dissecting the trend of deconstructed hero tropes and their impact on characters we hold dear. We share our insights on films like Force Awakens and Indiana Jones 5, and mull over Harrison Ford's comeback and the intriguing role of Phoebe Waller-Bridge.
We tackle some serious economic concerns, discussing the challenges tech startups face in a cash-poor environment and the looming economic downturn. We consider its potential impact on the world of streaming services, and share some valuable financial lessons we've learned along the way. As we wrap up our journey, we invite you to join us in debating the merits of turkey legs vs. chicken legs and sharing our favorite food adventures.
And we're on, and so we're back from outer space. Yes, that's not what it feels like. Where was it? You went on vacation.
Speaker 2:Let's see started. We were in Orlando. Okay, my son had town. I know well, the worst place I've ever lived. Yeah, it was a little hot. We had eSports Nationals for XPL League and or XPL, whatever the heck they call it the video game.
Speaker 1:We leave a video games.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So we were down there for three or four days. Yep then flew straight from there up to Michigan for my wife's Yep family reunion. So we were like a day late. It was great we're in a place Gaylord, michigan yeah, out in the middle of nowhere, that's, that's what it feels like hotels are sweet. Yeah Well, no, no, this has nothing to do with that at all, it's just the location. Yeah, it's called Gaylord, oh the town town is called Gaylord and it was a.
Speaker 2:It was a resort called the sojourn resort. It's not like nothing super fancy, but because we had 60, some people, we got the whole resort, which is nice. It was on a lake. Yeah, they had a whole like recreation area. The kids my youngest had a ball there because there were a bunch of little kids and you know, my 14 year old, after being in Orlando, was a little drained. I think I spent a lot of time in his room, which 14 year olds will do. And then after that we came back for two days and we flew to Seattle, went on our Alaska.
Speaker 2:Finally four years. It was awesome.
Speaker 2:I I believe it was. It was beautiful and again, we didn't do like Excursions or anything like since we had never been. We're like you know what, we'll go and then we'll get off the ship and we'll walk around, go for hikes, whatever. So we got to experience some of it. But just the and this is what I've been told by buddy before we went and obviously I talked to you been a couple times Mm-hmm was the way we went was really nice because we could see some, because we had state rooms, that with balconies, yes, you could see so much, like the day that you go up through the channel towards the glacier. We couldn't get all the way up there because we were on a huge ship, 40 for 4,000 something people, but the whole morning, you know you, you get in the channel at like five in the morning and then they just kind of cruise along slow and you can just it's.
Speaker 2:It was so peaceful, commanding views. It was amazing the, the mountains and the trees. I don't know, for some reason the trees won't leave me. Yeah, it, I'm a I'm a twilight nerd and it it felt like you know Frickin, edward Cullen, jumping up in those huge trees and forks, oregon, you know Washington, whatever it was, but but yeah, no, it was. It was a lot of fun. Eat too much food. Oh yeah, that's just the way it is when it's on the cruise and really it. You know, I it wasn't like a lot of food at once. It was, I don't eat breakfast, but on on the ship we're like all right, we're gonna eat breakfast, lunch and dinner and by by kind of like three quarters away through the week I'm like I'm not eating lunch. I don't know.
Speaker 1:I don't need to do this. That's my strategy for coming up vacation. So I think the last time we actually met in person was like May. No, we were in June.
Speaker 2:You're right. Yeah, it's June. It's now. We're going in in June.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you're right, we did. And I mean, it's just been a friggin whirlwind. Summer is a whirlwind. What else did you guys do? Oh, shoot, okay.
Speaker 1:So I don't remember if we talked about this because it has been so long, but, like the last couple of weeks of May, as we were going into the finale of school, I had written 36,000 words on the new novel. Oh right, yeah, I Did not get any more done after the last Wednesday of school. There. I picked it up like three weeks later and it took me another Four weeks to finish it. The last 30,000 words or so. That's not you, that's not me, and it's good. I did a read-through this week and so I like it.
Speaker 1:But so what happened was the last week of school was intense. We had all these events and award ceremonies and you know kids events. The next week. The whole week was like my daughter's dance recital prep. The week after that my middle son had his Dance recital thing. The week after that my daughter had nationals competition. The week after that, I think, we had a brief lull and then it was like the next week was dance intensives, to like try out for competitive teams, and it's just like. And then the week after that, like Alicia and I went away Two weeks ago, my parents were in town, that's, my mother-in-law was in town during part of that. It's like we had a wave of visitors. But when my parents got to town, alicia and I took off and we went to Chattanooga for four days. How was it it was awesome yeah.
Speaker 1:I hadn't been to Chattanooga since I was a kid. Great town, yeah, I like it a lot. I mean I've never. I don't know if I've ever actually stayed there before, but like we would go to my grandparents. I lived about 45 minutes outside Chattanooga where my mom grew up and we would go every every summer. I would spend a week to two weeks with them without my parents around just, you know, exile. I Could have some peace of quiet, which I didn't. I didn't care at the time. They let me watch R rated movies my parents were super strict about that thing.
Speaker 1:And so it's like I would watch. You know, freddy, I go down to the video store which was like one of three businesses in their tiny town, and they let me rent whatever R rated movie I want.
Speaker 2:So it's like, freddy, jason, chucky, I saw them all when we stayed in my grandparents we watched be this in bloodhead. We'd play and watch be as a boy, which we couldn't do at home.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah that's. I wasn't even allowed to watch the Simpsons when it first came out. It was considered to be toprope.
Speaker 2:Yeah not much, not much for me either, but anyway.
Speaker 1:So Chattanooga was sweet. We stayed at this Fancy hotel called the Chattanoogan. It was July 4th week. There was no one there. Really, the place was dead. They have a restaurant in the lobby. We ended up eating at that restaurant five meals. Oh my gosh. It was so good. It was one of the best restaurants I've ever eaten downtown. It's yeah, it was real close to downtown. It's like Right by the conference center.
Speaker 2:Okay, but you couldn't like walk to the aquarium and stuff.
Speaker 1:You could. It's about ten blocks away. I'd say we went to the aquarium. Yeah, aquariums awesome. It's beautiful. It's rock city. I hadn't been. I used to want to go to that every year and I hadn't been since probably I was 16 or something like that. It's awesome. Rock city is amazing. I'm gonna on there. It's really cool If you get a chance to go. It's a little kitschy, it's a little tourist trappy, but it's really neat.
Speaker 1:Like we might come through on our vacation here next week and and see it when we're coming back up, because I don't know if I even told you this, we had to chop off the end of our vacation. No, yeah. So Alex's cross-country is and the Ravenwood Orientation is like the days we were gonna be in DC and so instead of doing Norfolk, dc, delaware, maryland, we're just like in West Virginia, we're like, well, chop that, we're just gonna do. We added an extra day to see Asheville. We're gonna go to the Biltmore.
Speaker 1:Then we're doing Charlotte, north Carolina, I'm gonna try and do the NASCAR Museum and the Whitewater rafting center, charleston, all the historic stuff, point Pleasant Naval Museum and whatnot. Um, myrtle Beach, for just the touristy craziness here, it's like the severe vol of the coast? Absolutely yes. So I'm All in for that. Then we have to cut back across to Atlanta, where we will be eating at Papa Citos, cantina Papados the only ones in the southeastern US Well, papa Citos anyway. And then right back up here, but we might stop at Chattanooga on the way and hit those, show those to the Kid's house.
Speaker 2:Yeah, cool, that's the aquariums really neat too. It is that whole downtown area, like what they've done. It's very walkable. Did you go across the river? What is it to the north side or whatever? We?
Speaker 1:went up there for lunch one day, to Taco Mamacita, which they have one in Germantown up here. It's a sweet taco shop, oh man, it's good. They had some of the best like tacos I've ever had. It was. It was like the artisanal tacos yeah, authentic Mexican tacos. Your mom would be like, ah, this is trash. No bueno, what is this Norte americano trash? But it's really good. It's like artisanal. They have like a one that's brisket and Barbecue sauce and like it's. It was great. I gotta go back. I gotta go back down there again.
Speaker 1:Chattanooga is a great place to do a getaway, but anyway, the hotel restaurant called forge. I never write reviews for anyone. I wrote a Google review five stars because we ate, I think, everything on the menu which they had. They had one of the best steaks I've ever had in my life. They had. They had an appetizer that was like a whipped feta with a little bit of honeycomb in it. Oh yeah, in some capers, yeah, and a little smoked paprika and with these, perfect, like toasted chabata. We ordered that every single time we went.
Speaker 1:Their salads were amazing. They had a peach something salad. That was really great. They had a fantastic barata salad. They had a half. I ordered a half chicken one time. Like I never ordered chicken at restaurants, I'm like I want to try this half chicken and the grits that they had that came with it were pink unicorn something grits. Oh, they were the greatest grits I've had in my life. Why were they pink unicorn? I don't know, that's just what they called them. Were they pink? They were pink. They were indeed pink, and I don't know what made them pink but I know they were fantastic.
Speaker 2:They ate unicorn blood in them.
Speaker 1:Well, I'll live forever. Then, yeah, there you go. It'll be a half life, first life, right? Yeah, I mean, I could talk about the food we ate there forever, and I did in my Google review.
Speaker 2:Where else did you guys go? You went to Rock City, you went across the river, or where else did you go?
Speaker 1:We kind of did a thing every day. We sat, just sat in red and spent time together. We logged into Netflix and binged Santa Clarita diet Like we never had a chance to do that.
Speaker 2:I love doing that kind of stuff.
Speaker 1:Just the two of us. It was amazing. It was the first time we got together last year for like two days when we went to Birmingham and did kind of a similar like do nothing. I think I was working a little bit. I think I was working on story ideas or something and she was trying to get stuff out. But this was just. We got ourselves a suite, Hotel prices were rock bottom, there was no one there. It was just let's hang out. We're gonna focus on us for a few days, enjoy ourselves, eat like fat kids and it was great. That's awesome, man, Just what.
Speaker 2:I needed. Yeah, I think we did that last year when we went to Austin and I we looked up one evening and we had been watching television for like 10 hours. Nice, and I realized I hadn't done that since college. I mean, do you remember those days of just like vegging out? I don't know if you did that, I know.
Speaker 1:I've done it in the last few years. I haven't done it probably in about five years now, but like when the Marvel shows were on Netflix Daredevil and Jessica Jones and stuff I would get up at two o'clock in the morning and I would watch them straight through the whole season. They're 13 episodes seasons, oh God yeah. But I haven't done that probably since then, because just most of the stuff on TV I don't give enough of a shit about to dedicate that kind of time to anymore.
Speaker 2:Have you been watching?
Speaker 1:the new Jack Ryan. I watched the first season and you told me that the third season picked up.
Speaker 2:The second season was ish. Third season was great. The fourth season is like it's good so far. We just finished the second episode last night and they are rocking and rolling. It's you know when they you know, especially with like espionage stuff, when you start freaking out about like this is like this is real. That's how it feels I mean very much. So you know they're bringing in the, you know the Asian triad, the cartels down in Mexico, the CIA, like the old director basically being in on the whole thing, and why. I mean it's pretty powerful, ok, and I mean I'm kind of like God, this is their writing has gotten pretty damn strong.
Speaker 1:Because the first season was really good. I think I told you about it. I know I talked about it with Lee and then after that my parents were like we didn't even finish the second season. It was so weak.
Speaker 2:That one. Yeah, it was a weak follow up. I don't know if it was because of COVID or whatever, but I highly recommend go to three and definitely do four. Ok, yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, because I heard Ding Chavez is coming in.
Speaker 2:Yes, we, he just came in, yeah, which he's one of my favorite characters in the in the novels.
Speaker 1:That one guy that they have, the one that was from House of Cards. He kind of looks like he's supposed to be John Clark in this series, Because he's John.
Speaker 2:Clark oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, no, he's, yeah, so he he's.
Speaker 1:It's funny I said he's my wife. He was in season one or so, I think he's fantastic.
Speaker 2:Like I really like him as a good guy, honestly, rather than a bad guy like in House of Cards. And House of Cards he wasn't. You know he was. He's a really good actor. Yes, he's phenomenal. And so he just got the phone call in episode two that Jack needs him. You know that Jack needs his help. He's like I knew you would or something like that. He's just I don't know he's. Yeah, I really really like that. And then, of course, the guy that plays James Greer is fantastic too. He was. He was a really good Greer.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, really good. I watched Hunt for October again not that long ago, like within the last month, and it's just man, that thing stands the test of time.
Speaker 2:Oh my gosh. Yeah, you know it's. It's like do you remember why Baldwin didn't do the second one? I think it was a money thing, wasn't it? No, well, I don't know if this was rumor or whatever but, apparently he wanted to like sex scenes in it. I don't know what I mean, but knowing his past I wouldn't put that past him. But then you know, they brought in Harrison Ford and I thought he did great in some of those.
Speaker 1:He did. He wasn't. He didn't scream Jack Ryan to me, but you know that's okay, did you? Because I was watching an interview with Gates McFadden who played Dr Crusher on Star Trek, the Next Generation, okay, and she was talking about it, because I don't know if you remember this, she was actually Kathy Ryan in Hunt for Out October. What she's in it for like one scene, and that's it. It's at the very beginning when she's dropping Jack off at the airport. I don't remember that at all. That's her.
Speaker 1:She's Kathy Ryan in that and it's funny because she plays it with a British accent and Kathy Muller Ryan is not British. Yeah, they made that choice and whatever. It's like the only complaint I have for one of the greatest movies of all time. That's so funny. But she said something about oh yeah, well, I was supposed to be in Patriot games and then Alec, whatever. I don't remember what she said and she's like it's so. Then that was gone.
Speaker 2:So I went to Star Trek instead. Yeah, she had a great run on that?
Speaker 1:Oh, she did, but yeah. So it's funny you mentioned Harrison Ford, because I kind of had him on my list of things that I could possibly tear off or rant about right now. Oh no, harrison Ford has done some of his best work in the last few years on 1923. That is the most Harrison Ford role imaginable. He does an awesome job as the patriarch. I can't remember. It's Jacob, right, jacob?
Speaker 2:I don't know, they're all J's. Yeah, it's Jacob.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm pretty sure, and he's awesome in that. And then Indiana Jones 5. Oh, I haven't seen it. Yeah, neither have I, because I did all of the due diligence to figure out what it's about and how it goes. And it's another case of what I will call the deconstructed hero. I'm not the one who pioneered this, I'm pretty sure Critical Drinker or one of the guys in that kind of orbit, that constellation of reviewers has come up with it and maybe like Dave Cullen or somebody. But the deconstructed hero is just.
Speaker 1:You resume with a hero who's built up over the course of several movies Luke Skywalker, han Solo, indiana Jones being the three right off the top of my head, all Luke's film creations all built up in the course of a story arc that saw them go from farm boy to hero, from rogue scoundrel to hero, general treasure hunter to hero who saved the world multiple times. Right, we pick up with them 30, 40 years later and they're down, like you know, broken down, bitter, angry, pissed off. Old men Like this is the only thing that Lucasfilm knows how to do with old guys. I guess it's like we will take your heroes and then rub their faces in the shit and make them completely bitter, unlikable. We're going to bring in new characters and instead of building up those new characters and making them awesome the way you do with a traditional hero, we're going to advance them while devaluing your current hero, basically at the expense of the current hero. You think about Force Awakens.
Speaker 1:Rey doesn't look so awesome on her own. She just is naturally great at everything and she Shines up, or what do you call it. She overshadows Han Solo and Luke Skywalker in turn. She's just better than them. Why? Well, they kind of give a story reason later on. That wasn't really decided at the time. But essentially what they're doing is that she's got to be better than them. Some people have suggested that studio head of Lucasfilm, kathy Kathleen Kennedy. It's like sort of a self-insert for her, where she's like the Mary Sue, and so all of these characters must be better than the original heroes Because they represent her in the story. I don't know about that. It's an interesting theory, but it's only a theory. No one knows what goes on in Kathy and Kennedy's head. The point is they take these heroes. Same thing with the, the lady in Indiana Jones 5 who's played by Phoebe Waller-Bridge who, from everything I've heard, her show Fleabag is supposed to be amazing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I've only watched a couple episodes. It's a look, anyway, it's dark.
Speaker 1:It works on a lot of really is she's really good.
Speaker 1:There's a YouTube channel called baggage claim where she talks about why Phoebe Waller-Bridge was amazing in Fleabag, not so great in Indiana Jones and, as she points, paints a compelling case for why. Phoebe Waller-Bridge is probably a very talented writer and person, but, like when she's put in the Hollywood system and forced to work with the archetypes they give her for these characters this, this you know Female character that must overshadow her predecessor hero, it doesn't work for her because she's much better with like kind of more flawed, multifaceted heroines or protagonists, I guess you could say. Anyway, the point is I'm just sick of this trope at this point. I was I was the biggest Han Solo fan in the world. I was willing to accept it in Force Awakens. I saw Force Awakens six times in theaters. They broke down my hero. I got it. I thought, hey, this is maybe gonna go somewhere. Interesting. It didn't.
Speaker 1:Whatever that happens, but the fact that they've now done it three times to three major heroes with the same pattern, we will devalue and destroy your current hero that was built up. We're gonna turn him into a completely irredeemable, bitter old man. No heroism, useless garbage, whatever. It's the. It's the anti-maverick Top Gun. Maverick worked because Maverick is not a bitter old man. He still knows his shit. He's still a hero. He has things to impart to his successors. None of those Lucasfilm characters have shit to impart to their successors. They are useless. They're useless in what is ostensibly their own stories, potentially, and that is awful.
Speaker 2:Stop doing it, lucasfilm. But, but I think they would. They wouldn't they turn around and tell you that like the sacrifice at the end Would be worth it for them. What sacrifice. You know Han Solo dying and and then painting that, as you know him sacrificing somehow for the cause. You know I can see how and again, I I don't get into this shit as much as you do- I really don't, and, and to be quite honest, I don't care. Yeah, what I do care about is a good movie that's well-written.
Speaker 1:I just do that's the problem that I have too. It's like and I thought force awakens was actually fairly well yeah no, I liked it.
Speaker 2:I actually like the Ray character. I like the Ray character early on. She has no flaws. That's the biggest. Yeah, there's no character arc for her.
Speaker 1:No, I agree with the only character arc she has is that she gets to the end of the third movie and it's like I'm Ray Skywalker. Yeah, like, oh, okay. She's like I found the place where I belong alone. Yeah, in the desert planet where I've never lived before.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I didn't, I did not get. I never understood. I thought I knew where they were going. After the first one, yeah, and even with the second one, but the third one, you know, in the whole the love stuff and and in whatever I don't know, I'm gonna switch gears. Yeah, hair have you seen safe? Have you seen Harrison Ford in shrinking?
Speaker 1:No, you told me it was good and I haven't watched. I don't have Apple Plus yet.
Speaker 2:Oh my gosh. So I here. Let's take a step back. So all of a sudden, harrison Ford is back on the scene again doing a lot of stuff. Yeah, I don't know what's behind that. Like is he still with his wife? Like did he have, I think? So I think I don't know what was her name.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah that's what I was gonna say. Allen move, feel that's not a real name. So it's like all of a sudden he's, he's, he's back, doing all these things and and it always makes me wonder, like, do you wonder about that? Like, like what? What brought that come back? I don't know. What do you think?
Speaker 1:he's in Captain America 4, 2?. He takes over for William Hertz oh, really character, yeah, cuz what hurt died. Oh. And so he's gonna be playing Thaddeus Thunderbolt Ross who was yeah, he's in there speculating. He's gonna be the Red Hulk in it. So. And then he was in Indiana Jones publicity things and one of the nerd Interviewers is like so Everybody's kind of saying you're gonna be the Red Hulk and he like looks at the camera and I mean it's perfect, like I'm 90% sure he was acting, but he did it really well. Deadpan, like what's a Red Hulk?
Speaker 2:Perfect Harrison Ford.
Speaker 1:Tresor Phoebe Weller Bridget Did you know about this?
Speaker 2:Yeah, you have definitely, at least in my All the outlets that I use. I have not seen a lot of publicity for Indiana Jones at all.
Speaker 1:It's gonna lose the money. Yeah, so the Low-ended mission is that it cost them 295 million dollars to make and it is so far at global box office at 250 million and I think it's opened in about every territory. Yeah, so I mean it's it's gonna lose them money, and at this point I mean Star Wars would probably lose the money. Lucasfilm has burned everything to the ground. I I mean I'm sitting here as someone who has invested in the Walt Disney Corporation in the past but thankfully does not own their stock right now. I Would be absolutely in favor of an activist investor dethroning Bob Iger. He is not Steering the ship in a smart direction. It seems to me like I don't necessarily disagree with his general idea of well, we probably need to scale back development a little bit in order to make more quality stuff, but he approved all of this shit that was being thrown against the wall and you know did you see?
Speaker 2:charge came out today when yesterday. It doesn't matter that he's talking about divesting out of, like Some of their TV assets, like ABC and FX or whatever because he's like with CNBC.
Speaker 1:Yeah, he's know that that was part of it, but I mean yeah he said he the TV medium he's like it's going away, it is it is, I mean when. This is the funny thing is traditional TV.
Speaker 1:Yeah, why would even argue that streaming is gonna take a big hit over the next few years? Hbo's Well, it's now max, but it was HBO max. Their service is not doing well. Paramount is not doing well. A paramount plus, netflix, you know, first mover advantage. They've done pretty well for themselves.
Speaker 1:I don't, I don't I haven't looked their financials lately, but I mean most of these streaming services are not doing particularly well. Disney plus is losing subscribers. I mean they're the cheapest of all and they're they're they're losing ground. They're the exclusive refuge of like all of these Disney, star Wars, marvel, whatever nobody seems to. And and free money the cheap money that we've had over the last few years with low interest rates is drying up. Yeah, like a lot of businesses are gonna be hit hard.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's funny cuz Alicia and I've been talking about it and In general I think she's like I think a recession is coming. Oh, yeah, she went and rebooked all our hotels for the next few weeks of vacation and was able to get like a 25% Discount on what we were gonna pay because none of them are at occupancy. Yeah, and that included some pretty, I mean myrtle be. I will see what Myrtle Beach looks like, because there's a lot of hotels in Myrtle Beach, but I Think it's generally a pretty damn busy place in the summertime. Oh, absolutely, and so if we go there and it's like not busy at all, I think something might be right, see, travels not down, that's the thing.
Speaker 2:Travels not down, but the Corporate. So I had an interesting conversation with a guy who's a pretty big commercial real estate investor here in town and he, they, he told me, he said you Banks are shut down for commercial lending. Yeah, and I would too if I were them yeah, like that asset they do not want on their books anymore. For them to just say, uh-uh, no more. That's crazy.
Speaker 1:And I didn't see the disposition of it. But there's some of these big office buildings in places like San Francisco and New York. I saw one in San Francisco where they basically just handed the keys back to the lender and said best of luck, Because again it goes back to that urban doom loops thing we've talked about before, where there's not enough demand for people who want to work in the city, and I don't know what you do with all that commercial space.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, there's a lot of loans on the book associated with that Right. Well, and that's one of the biggest factors is, you know, as a developer, as an investor you are, you're basically, you know, taking out loan after loan after loan, like big loans too, yeah, huge loans, and so you're constantly refinancing, right, mm-hmm. Well, when you go from almost 0% money, to 5% To 5% yeah. Your returns just disappeared. Yes, oof gone. So I don't blame some of these people that are like here. Here are the keys.
Speaker 1:Well, I think the occupancy rates are the other big part of it.
Speaker 2:In San Francisco, for sure, yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, I mean in downtown Nashville you probably have a better situation, although I did talk to one of my neighbors who is a commercial real estate guy and he was saying it's going to be a slightly more challenging environment. Amazon had that second tower that they were building in the Nashville Yards area I think is what they called the development, where they put the logistics buildings yeah, and one of my neighbors works in one of them but I was hearing that they had a second tower and they basically just left it at the shell stage because they're like we don't know if we need as much office space as we originally talked about.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Again, when there's free money, you can basically develop as much as you want. It totally makes sense. And here's the thing, and you know this, we've been through a couple of cycles. This is natural. Like this needs to happen, because a lot of the things were completely they were screwy. They were screwy, people were taking advantage of the system. So it's like there needs to be and I love how everybody looks for the government to fix it all.
Speaker 1:I'd rather you not. They've been trying to fix it for years and they've screwed everything up.
Speaker 2:Well, that's the thing is like. Everybody's going to try whatever they're going to try. There is no perfect fix because, even if we look back at history, history will repeat itself in different ways, but not exactly. And that's the thing is like, especially when you read the news well, the Fed is trying to do what they did back in 1943. Well, okay, different factors, different things. Yes, maybe certain things are the same. But I've gone back and I'm reading like the Tower of Charlie Munger, right now.
Speaker 2:And to see, even over his career, the times that their focus and the way they invest has changed, because the market, the world, everything has changed. So it's like I feel like it's all just a guessing game. The government's trying to guess which way things are going to go, so they apply certain things. Banks do the same thing. Banks are like I don't know, I don't want to be, I'm glad I don't work for a bank right now, especially in a commercial world. It's going to be interesting. I mean, I think, from everything that I've read and that I listened to, the first two quarters of next year are going to suck for a lot of industries.
Speaker 1:Did you listen to my talk with Mike Lorenz from a couple weeks back?
Speaker 1:Okay, it's really long, but one of the more interesting things that he and I talk about is just how the US economy and banking in general has kind of been like a guy who's on steroids working out and I don't know how much you know about steroids, but if you're on them, you basically have to stay on them in order to maintain your mass, otherwise you just tail off and become skinny and to a large extent, our playing with interest rates and central banking has become like the steroids that have kept our economy going.
Speaker 1:And so if we lose the ability to do that to a certain extent because we've been playing with interest rates and printing money and doing all of this stuff, if we ever lose that, it's really going to be like a guy who's suddenly goes off a crash diet. He was on all the steroids and replacement test and all this stuff and it's just and he's just going to be back to the skinny nerd. If he survives the trends and transition down to he's going to try and lift and then he's going to break both shoulders because he can't lift anything anymore.
Speaker 2:And we're seeing that. We're seeing that with companies. Now, right that you have, say, a company that was a unicorn and that raised all this money, and now they basically the company has no value to the investors because they've already been wiped clean. And so what do you do? What do you do with a company like that? Well, maybe you strip it for assets. Maybe you start from day one.
Speaker 1:Take the tech or somewhere else with it.
Speaker 2:I can know, but I do like that, and it's coming faster now that companies are getting back to fundamentals right, making money instead of this ridiculous burn rate every freaking month, because that never used to be a thing that wasn't a thing back in the early 1900s or even the mids.
Speaker 1:Even in the early 2000s. In fact, one of the things that was interesting that I read not that long ago was about these new tech startups like Uber new now, they've been around for a while, but like Uber, netflix, the ones that are like most recent generation of unicorns right, whereas in the past it was like Amazon, facebook, microsoft, the tech titans of the 90s and early 2000s. Those companies always made cash, like they always. Their burn rate was not obscene compared to what they would bring in. They generate revenue, whereas like Uber was not doing very well at all there for a while and they would burn through incredible amounts of cash.
Speaker 1:Netflix, same thing. I think Netflix is now making money, no idea, but for a while there it was like they would just burn through the cash in order to create content and it wasn't necessarily getting, I guess, best bang for their buck, or they were burning through so much cash that they couldn't make a profit. I think they controlled costs and they might be in better shape, but the point was that these new companies, because they were raised in this cash rich environment, would just absolutely burn through at an insane rate, and you saw the same thing with Twitter when Elon came in and took it over he was the first one that did it.
Speaker 2:He was the first one to cut.
Speaker 1:Cut, cut, cut.
Speaker 2:And then what happens. But those are all end.
Speaker 1:Guys were saying that at the time you sent me that podcast.
Speaker 2:Then Facebook did it, then everybody started doing it right, because that's what was needed. You had all this fluff of middle management that they weren't doing anything.
Speaker 1:Well, they expanded rapidly to include all of these people that didn't add value Totally. And that's why I mean I think that's one of the reasons why the DEI coordinators at a lot of these places are getting the ax first is it's like yeah, okay, if we have infinite money, sure I'll virtue signal for whatever I have to pay, but when we actually start to get into a financially dicey position, you're the first to go.
Speaker 2:And to be shocked at that if you're in that position is naive. You know either that or you're really young. And I feel bad for those in their early 20s who were getting chopped and they haven't experienced it yet. And the same thing back in 08 when we were in the middle of it is like holy crap. Lucky enough for me, like I remember 2000. And I was going to the military at the time, so that didn't really affect me, but I got to watch it from the outside and I had friends. You know, my best man, one of my best friends, was at Enron when that whole thing, imploded right.
Speaker 2:He was there for like a year when that whole thing happened. So it's like you see these things and you live and learn and you can, you know. I hope that these founders that had these unicorns will call them that are no longer unicorns. I don't know. They've got a name for now, like falling unicorns or something like that and I hope.
Speaker 2:I hope these really smart people, these guys and gals like, learn from this and either pick themselves up and keep building or go build something else. You know, inevitably, hopefully, that will happen, but but it's really interesting to see. It's like you said, they were basically raised in an environment where there was free money. Yeah, you know, like I tell the story all the time, if I had been a kid who was like LeBron James and given $100 million out of high school, I would be a total shit show. Oh yeah, I really would. And even so, I still have been in my life because I have to learn all these money lessons. You know, for me the lessons come very, very slowly because I'm I'm not very smart when it comes to that, apparently, but I think that as I've gotten older, I'm picking up those those little things quicker. You know because, because I don't want to make the same mistakes again, I don't know, it's going to be really interesting next six, eight, 12 months.
Speaker 1:That, that lesson, though. That what you're talking about. There is exactly what Alicia and I discussed with our oldest here, because he was like we you know, if the lottery gets high, we'll buy it one ticket or two tickets probably, and I think it's Powerball's like 875 million right now. Let's go get them.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, let's stop right now and go $4,.
Speaker 1:You know, we'll buy a couple of tickets. And it's like we just sit back and kind of enjoy it, like, haha, you know, this is kind of fun. And he's like, hey, I want to buy a ticket too. And I'm like, no, hey, you're not old enough. Well, you can keep it though. And I'm like no, because the last. Can you imagine how much of an absolute dumpster fire you would be if someone would handed you $400 million in cash?
Speaker 2:and it sounds so great, it sounds so great it sounds like.
Speaker 1:You know, if someone did that to me, I would be in the exact same situation as you like. The best I would be the introvert who sits in a castle like house, probably never married, because I didn't have a need to get out and socialize and I just have read and played every video game known to man. My Xbox gamer score would be in the millions, it's like. Would that have created a rewarding life for me? No, I had a process of development to go through. I had to do a character arc, Like they should have done with Indiana Jones.
Speaker 1:And they decided not to. And so that I mean there's your problem right there. If you don't go through the character, growth and development and suffering, then you don't become the person that you're supposed to be I. And why would you suffer if you have $400?
Speaker 2:million. That right there. That's the headline, though, right Is? People don't want to suffer, and I raised my hand and say I was one of those that did not want to suffer. Yeah, no, it's not fun, because you don't. I mean you want to wish that on anybody, especially not yourself.
Speaker 1:The thing is, life is suffering to a certain extent and money can erase some of that, but I mean the struggles, part of it, like when we talked, I don't know whenever, the last time we were actually doing a couple of podcasts in a row, it was like taste like poverty. How would you know if you've not done?
Speaker 2:what we did Right, unless you have that same linguine pasta every single day because it only costs 50 cents.
Speaker 1:Yeah, the junior bacon cheeseburgers and the chilies the value menu at Wendy's. I would not know the taste of the value menu at Wendy's if I hadn't tasted poverty. I mean why would I? I'd have a private chef. I have three of them, one for every meal of the day.
Speaker 2:But thank God that we went through that. I needed that. I really did. It's funny. Best case scenario for me probably would have been like I would have burned through 90 some percent of that money, and there still happened to be like 10 million left to when I finally woke up, ditched all my addictions and realized oh man, maybe I should get my shit together. You know who knows how long that would have taken, though.
Speaker 1:It's easier to burn through large quantities of money, like I knew a couple of people who got inheritances in high school and they didn't get like I don't think huge ones, but they blew through them in rapid order and it was like booze, weed, samurai swords One guy I'm not even kidding you.
Speaker 1:This one dude. He inherited enough money like his mom had to basically live in his house because somehow he inherited it from his dad. I don't know if there was marriage on the rocks or what, but it bypassed her and went to him and so his mom was basically subject to him when he was still a minor. Oh no, yeah, cause she couldn't have her own place and so anyway, he was out drinking, doing drugs and whatnot. He's driving down this road and is blasted out of his mind and somehow he goes off the road and hits this 100 year old church and knocks it off its foundations. I mean it's Florida, so it's built up off the swampy ground or whatever, but I mean it's like I think he got his life together eventually, but like he had a really rough time with that. And why wouldn't he Cause you have no, he had no one to check him and be like, stop being a dumb fuck.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, it's funny. But before you even said that, it reminded me of something that I saw I don't know if it was a commercial, probably something on socials about a guy who was talking about one of these rich guru guys he was talking about. Yeah, you know, and you should start from day one, when your kid is is born, to start, you know, maximizing so that by the time they become, you know, they're 23, they can be millionaires. I'm like whoa, whoa, whoa, what, what, why would I do that? Like, I don't know, and you and I have talked about this some too. I just, I don't know. I think my kids should have to work for that themselves, like, like, if we leave them something, you know, I think it should be structured. That's me personally, I feel like it should be. You know, for us it'll probably be something revolving around travel or something like that, but I don't want to leave them a ton of money to be stupid with. I don't know.
Speaker 1:Like I would have an easier time if they came to me at age 30 and they're like, hey, can you help me with like a down payment for a house?
Speaker 2:That's totally different.
Speaker 1:But it's different because it's like you know it's not going up their nose or you know, or being drunk, drunk away, which, when you're in your 20s, let's be honest, that's a real danger of happening, because I don't know. I suspect I know what your answer is going to be to this but like I drank a lot in my 20s, I quit because I was so sure that I was an alcoholic. I quit drinking before I was 21 because I couldn't drink without getting completely blitzed out of my mind drunk. I had no discipline to it and I sort of picked it up again in my 20s and I still had no discipline with it. And so now I can have a drink every once in a while without getting completely blitzed out of my mind. But that's like the virtue of wisdom and also the fact that I know how it goes right to my belly. I figured out I can either have dessert or a drink, and not both. I think I'm going to pick the cake.
Speaker 2:Wait, which kind of cake?
Speaker 1:Well, let's see. Do you currently have a favorite? So I make a wicked pineapple upside down cake. Oh yeah, it's so damn good. Oh my gosh, I'll have to make it for you sometime. It's so good.
Speaker 2:We'll coordinate for one of my cheat meals. How about that?
Speaker 1:That sounds like a plan. When I'm on a cooking bender, which I was during COVID I was making chicken parmesan, linguine alf or a chicken alfredo, fettuccine alfredo with chicken in it. I mean it's one of the best fettuccine alfredos I've ever had in my life and I made it, which is dangerous because then you realize you can have it anytime. Oh yeah, like all of these things, I was doing them during COVID and after. I learned how to cook during that time and I learned how to cook really, really well, the stuff that I like the best. Blessing and a curse it is. It is so I can make an amazing chicken parmesan anytime I want to have it, but it takes time, number one, and I'm going to be fat if I eat it all the time.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, yeah, I told you when I walked in or maybe we had already talked about it that being away and being out of my routine and eating just not the way I'm used to, yeah, I feel it way more now, now that I'm older, you know that sick feeling in your stomach, right. Yeah, body doesn't process things quite as well as it used to. I mean, then I watch my boys and they can eat anything, they're just disposals.
Speaker 1:So Alex had a doctor's appointment thing this morning and afterwards my daughter's like a day camp thing, and I took the other three wife and the other two kids out to breakfast at Waffle House. Oh man, I'm not going to be eating again until late this afternoon. I love Southern Hibachi. That's what we call Waffle House. That's what you call it Southern Hibachi. It is, it's Southern Hibachi. Do you get the waffles Hell?
Speaker 2:yeah, their waffles are dynamite. Yeah, yeah, do you get the blueberry?
Speaker 1:ones or just regular ones, just regular, regular. I'm not fancy. I just take that crappy canola spread and just douse it in that and drown that fucker in syrup.
Speaker 2:Yeah, my big splurge when I do breakfast is Cracker Barrel. They're pancakes, cracker Barrel, those pancakes.
Speaker 1:We went there for Father's Day at dinner. Oh really, yes. Did you have breakfast or dinner?
Speaker 2:I had breakfast. Oh yeah, If I go to Cracker Barrel, I'm having breakfast Me too.
Speaker 1:I don't think I've ever had dinner meal at Cracker Barrel they have really amazing chicken fried steak, but you can get it as part of the breakfast meal.
Speaker 2:I still don't understand what the hell that means.
Speaker 1:You know what chicken fried steak.
Speaker 2:I know what it is, but I don't get it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's like a low grade meat that's fried like chicken.
Speaker 2:OK.
Speaker 1:And usually has a white gravy on it or whatever.
Speaker 2:So it's just a mass of the fact that it's cheap meat, yeah, ok.
Speaker 1:But it tastes so good. Ok, I went to this place in Houston that my cousin who lives down there turned me on to that I had the best damn chicken fried steak I've ever eaten in my life. I've never had it. You've never had chicken fried steak. Never Get it as like I don't know. I guess you probably can't get it as a side at Cracker Barrel Chicken fried steak, but Cracker Barrel has really good chicken fried steak. It's like a. It's like you ever have steak nuggets when you were a kid.
Speaker 2:No.
Speaker 1:OK, that's sad. Where's steak nuggets from Apparently heaven? In my imagination Is this something your parents made. No, they came in like banquet meals when I was a kid. What? Yeah, you could get chicken nuggets and you could get steak nuggets. Nope, oh yeah, steak nuggets.
Speaker 2:Maybe it's because I ate the cheap version of Hungry man meals, I don't even know.
Speaker 1:I mean, I might have been getting the cheap version of them too. It might have been a regional thing, because some stuff is just regional markets, so it's very possible that Chicken Fried Steak is not sold west of New Mexico.
Speaker 2:Maybe I lived in Japan the year that that was out.
Speaker 1:I don't think it was a year. It was there throughout my whole childhood. I've never heard of that. Oh yeah, man. Chicken Fried Steak nuggets Nuggets. Chicken Fried Steak nuggets they were dynamite, you could dip them in a gravy and they were really good.
Speaker 2:How do our conversations always devolve into food?
Speaker 1:I think it's because I'm hungry.
Speaker 2:No, I ate before I came over here for a reason, and we're still hungry, because other than editing.
Speaker 1:All I care about right now is eating, Like when we're going on our vacation. I've already got the restaurant scouted, Do you really? There's this place in Myrtle Beach called the original Benjamin's Calabash Buffet? What?
Speaker 2:It has oh shit you not?
Speaker 1:There's like 160 or 190 menu items and it's like crab legs and fried shrimp and coconut shrimp and it's like everything you can imagine. I'm like I'm dragging my family along like a hostage situation to that place. We will walk out of here when I am full and that is it, and when I get back, I'm going to go on the most epic weight loss spree that you can ever possibly mention.
Speaker 2:I can see Alicia. I can help daddy to the car. No.
Speaker 1:I want to come back. I need a lap band procedure.
Speaker 2:What is it called Benjamin's Calabash?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think it's called the original Benjamin Calabash and it was apparently so popular that they created an offspring one that was called something else, captain's Calabash or something. It's a local, you know, local area with these like weird traditions, but like apparently there was a secondary one and so they had to specify that. Hey, where are the originals? Seafood, all you can eat, 10,000 item buffet oh my gosh, when we were in that it's like it sounds like a red lobster all you can eat.
Speaker 2:Oh my gosh, can you imagine? I haven't been to a red lobster in a long, long time. When we were up in Michigan, in Gaylord, there was a place it was the one that was in the middle of town was no longer there, but when we left that we saw there was a new one. It's called Gobblers and it's like there.
Speaker 2:I mean on the sign it says like, our specialty is turkey, like everything, turkey To me that is not, not somewhere I want to go, but it looks like it had been there for a hundred years.
Speaker 1:Dude, I don't know. I don't get it. I don't understand the appeal of turkey at all.
Speaker 2:They need good fried turkey because I want the skin like fresh out of the fryer. But I mean turkey is not.
Speaker 1:I mean, if you had to pick turkey breast, chicken breast, perfectly cooked, both of them, yeah, way more flavor, way tastier I prefer a thigh, but yeah. Yeah, I love a good chicken thigh. That's my diet is eating chicken thighs, but same thing, it's like a turkey leg. I think I'd rather have a chicken leg. Yeah, yeah, I'm with you. I mean I'll take one occasionally and we go to like a medieval Renaissance fest or whatever.
Speaker 2:Yeah, then it's fun. It's not like Disney World, but it's not that good. No, it's not. No, it's never as good as I think it's going to be. No, I mean it looks good because you know they've toasted or whatever. It looks huge. Yeah, it really does. It's always too much. You could kill somebody that tried to take your wallet, you know that'd be cool.
Speaker 1:Yeah, club them, yeah. So there's that.
Speaker 2:Well, with that, how about a perfect time?
Speaker 1:We've talked about enough food for you, yeah we'll let that wrap.
Speaker 2:We'll come back with more food, yeah.
